Man City ‘make massive £87m Brazilian bid’ as Villa ‘offer’ former wonderkid a fresh start

When news broke a couple of days ago that Pep Guardiola had identified West Ham’s Lucas Paquetá as the midfielder he needed to fill the hole left by the departed Ilkay Gündoğan and Riyad Mahrez, I think we all expected that we knew which way this would go – City would offer a big wad of cash, West Ham would try to pretend he wasn’t for sale, the wad would become a little larger, and the player would get his big move. What we didn’t expect was how big the wad would get, and how quickly it would happen.

City’s first bid was widely reported to be in the region of £60-70m, depending on who you believed – and TeamTalk now reckon they’re coming back to the table with a colossal bid of €101m (£87.2m), which would represent a pretty healthy profit on the £51m the Hammers paid for the Brazilian midfielder in 2022.

The 3AM Verdict: Paquetá impressed us sufficiently to be named one of our top 10 most underappreciated new signings in the Premier League last season, but even we didn’t reckon he’d be breaking the €100m barrier any time soon. But this is Manchester City – a club of infinite means and absolute willingness to spend it all on anybody who catches Guardiola’s eye. So this will get done, and Guardiola will get the extra midfield depth he sorely needed. Poor Cole Palmer can pack his bags for another loan spell, then, eh?

Villa ready to give fallen idol a second chance

Aston Villa have been in the hunt for another attacking midfield option for some time, despite the recent signing of Moussa Diaby – and they may have found their man from slightly out of leftfield.

A report from Sport Italia claims that Villa are willing to offer Nicolò Zaniolo another chance at the big time after his rather spectacular fall from grace at Roma, where he went for the Gillarossi’s great white hope to an outcast in the twinkling of an eye. He’s now at Galatasaray, having made the move to Turkey about 10 years ahead of the traditional schedule.

Apparently the deal would be an initial loan, with €3m paid up front and the possibility of an extra €30m should they sign him permanently – a little below his release clause of €35m. The bad news is that the Villans have competition from Zenit St. Petersburg, who have a substantial stack of money burning a hole in their back pocket and would likely outbid Villa on the wages front.

The 3AM Verdict: Assuming the reports of an initial loan are true, this seems like a fairly low-risk move for a player blessed with undoubted talent but also cursed with a slew of injuries and the fact that he became José Mourinho’s traditional one-man punchbag while he was at Roma. If he can recover physically and mentally, he could be quite the player – and if he can’t, well, it was only a loan.

Man Utd’s midfield movements

Finally for this morning, a couple of late updates from Manchester United’s continuing renovations to the midfield – and bad news when it comes to their chances of finally sealing a deal for Sofyan Amrabat.

Sport Witness cite reports that Juventus, having finally offloaded Swiss player Denis Zakaria, have turned their attentions to the Moroccan midfield general, and with Amrabat plainly stalling extensively over a move to Manchester, that can’t possibly bode well.

On the other hand, there’s finally movement for poor Donny van de Beek, who could seal a move to Real Sociedad on loan very soon, with an option to buy should he find a few scraps of his old Ajax form again.

The 3AM Verdict: It’s slightly surprising that Manchester United are set to start the season with Scott McTominay still firmly in place and no replacements in sight – the wheels are turning slowly, and it seems obvious that Amrabat would rather be somewhere a little warmer than Salford. Sadly, no word yet on alternative options if the World Cup hero does decide to take his services elsewhere. As for Van de Beek? Well, we’re all just glad that he gets a change of scenery.